Butler's Pantry

The butler's pantry in the basement is one of the most intact rooms in the castle.  Having said that, the flooring had been totally removed long before I bought the building, so the space was not usable.

It still has its original window, with just one broken pane of glass at the bottom right, The original door is still there too, but it had been kicked off its hinges in the past, so is rather in need of repair.

window in butler's pantry

Gregor has recently been repairing the wooden linings round the window, using new bespoke linings manufactured locally with an absolutely identical profile. The cost of these was eye-watering. We have been very careful to "repair" existing fittings throughout this restoration, not only does this exempt the work from any form of planning considerations but it is also perhaps the purest and best approach.

paint "lip"reveals location of original worktop for butler's sink

I instructed Gregor to keep the 5 short existing sections of moulding on left hand side in the above image. These reveal the location of a worksurface which would have held a butler's sink. There was a blocked-up drain underneath as corroboration. When I visited Mellerstain House in the Scottish Borders, I was delighted to see their butler's pantry and committed the details to memory.

In fact, it was the blocked-up drain than prevented us from rebuilding the floor over the top for the longest time. Unblocking the drain was quite an adventure in itself but this is a story for another day - suffice it to say that the drain is now flowing.

Anyhow, Gregor called me over a couple of days ago for a site meeting in the butler's pantry, and asked how we were going to line the walls underneath the worksurface and wouldn't it be better to take the new lining down to the ground instead of just replicating short sections? Gregor was of course correct, and I abandoned my principle of retaining all original fabric in this one instance. The five short lengths could go, especially as there was already a lot of this original lining surviving in the room.

Anyhow, removing this small amount of original fabric made me record the "before" and indeed create this particular blog entry. You can see the original lining on the left hand side of the window reveal, and the new lining on the right hand side of the window reveal.

original lining on left

new lining on right

While the Victorians generally had great attention to detail, I am constantly amazed that linings on sides and on tops, don't line up! :-)